This rmarkdown shows some of the relationships between SWE and snow depth at each location. Analyses conducted include:

General Patterns

Correlation between SWE and Snow Depth (November - April Water Year)

  • SWE and snow depth are highly correlated across regions (>0.9)
  • Generally, as snow depth and swe values get larger, they become less closely correlated

Monthly linear relationships between SWE and Snow Depth

  • SWE is a function of depth and density, so SWE/depth = bulk density
  • So through the water year, we see generally increasing density at all locations November to March.
  • However, in April, there is sometimes a drop in density depending on location - this may simply be because most of the snow has melted

Carrizo

  • Generally, January, February, and March swe and depth values are less correlated than other months

Each month has it’s own line:

Slope of the line of the linear relationship of each month’s swe and snow depth - almost linearly increasing slop through the water year until April, where the slope decreases back down to almost the February slope

Chuska

  • Generally, January, February, March, amd some April swe and depth values are less correlated than other months

Each month has it’s own line:

  • almost perfect linear increase in the slope of the relationship between swe and depth through time
  • adjusted r squared values for all lines > 0.9

Black Mesa

  • Generally, January, February, and March swe and depth values are less correlated than other months

Each month has it’s own line:

  • almost linearly increasing slop through the water year until April, where the slope decreases back down to almost the November slope

Mt Powell

  • Jn, Feb and March seem to be outliers

Each month has it’s own line:

  • almost linearly increasing slop through the water year until April, where the slope decreases back down to almost the November slope

Defiance Plateau

  • March seems to be least correlated

Each month has it’s own line:

  • almost linearly increasing slop through the water year until April, where the slope decreases back down to almost the January slope

SWE-depth ratio

  • annual averaged metric

  • Carrizo: 0.185

  • Chuska: 0.206

  • Black Mesa: 0.174 . ### SWE-depth ratio (= density) monthly average:

  • Generally, density increases through the water year (starting at november). This corroborates the trend seen in the correlation graph where depth and swe becomes less correlated as the water year progresses

SWE and Snow depth (November - April Water Year)

  • Generally, snow depth is much greater than SWE, but follows the same general patter

Chuska SWE vs depth monthly anomaly

Depth scaled (depth*0.2) by swe/depth metric

  • shows how well correlated SWE and snow depth are